Turn The Tables With This Tight Waist Roll!
The amount of glory, pride, and joy you get from the individuality of wrestling is like none other. Wrestling comes with a lot of the memorable, rewarding times, but the sport can also be extremely humbling at times. This often happens at the worst time and in the worst way possible. All it takes is your opponent to take a simple high crotch while you’re not paying full attention, not giving full effort, not anticipating the attack, or whatever the case may be, and you find yourself in one of these humbling moments with no hope of gaining control of the match. That is, if you don’t know what to do with the situation.
There always has been and always will be just about a million and one different ways to prevent your opponent from getting in on a high crotch. However, it does not matter how good you are, it is inevitable that at some point, one of your opponents is going to get in on their high crotch.
When that happens, you can freak out and give up because you think that there’s no way out of this position, or you can turn the tables on your opponent. Almost everyone knows at least a few moves from this position—whether or not you’re able to actually keep your composure and work one of said moves—but in the wrestling world, there is strength in numbers. The amount of moves that you familiarize yourself with will help you win matches in general, and in this case, you can easily avoid the humbling and somewhat embarrassing experience of getting taken down by a high crotch from someone who may not even be as good as you are.
Whether you’re clueless as to what to do in this situation with your opponent in on his shot, or you’re one of the more advanced wrestlers who is able to keep your composure and work moves from this position, we’re here to help with a great move. The tight waist roll is an effective way to keep from getting taken down once your opponent is in on a high crotch. It can also land some points for exposure if you’re a freestyle wrestler. Hone in your technique for this move with a walkthrough video by Dan Vallimont.
Dan gives his expertise in a series of these walkthrough instructional videos, Next Level Defensive Fundamentals. He lets us take in the moves and techniques that he used to win 2 New Jersey State High School Championships, gain NCAA D-1 All American status two times, compete in the Olympic Trials, and land several impressive coaching jobs. Check out this clip from Next Level Defensive Fundamentals where Dan Vallimont teaches the tight waist roll!
As we’ve established, this is a move to hit when your opponent gets a good high crotch. Once they do and you’re sprawled on top of them, you’re going to have to let them begin to build up a little bit. This seems counterintuitive, but this will give you the leverage that you will need for later when you go to actually roll. As your opponent is building up to where he’s on all fours, you're going to need to get that tight waist on the side he shot on, and on the other side you’re going to grab his foot where the laces are on his shoe. This sets you up for the roll.
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You’re going to roll to the side that you’re grabbing his foot on. Your leg on that side is going to be free, and to start the roll, you’re going to take that leg and tuck it up between his arm and leg. That forces your shoulders to go vertical, which is the start of the roll. As you carry that momentum over, freestyle wrestlers will get exposure points, but freestyle wrestlers have to keep working for their points while making sure to not get stuck on their back while rolling.
For either style of wrestling that this move is executed in, if you’re the one doing the roll, it is helpful to pop your hips while rolling. This pushing forward of your hips stretches your opponent out to where they can’t hold on to your leg or have any power. If you don’t pop your hips, they can keep hold of your leg, you both end up in the same spot, and unless you’re in freestyle, nobody scores. In freestyle it’s less essential to pop your hips, but it can still help to put you in a better position to win.
That position is reached by getting behind your man. When you roll you still end up out front of them, but this time they don’t have your leg, thanks to the popping of your hips. From here, Vallimont tells you to go reverse cross face. This blocks your man from being able to stop you from rotating around him to get your two points for the takedown. At this point, you are behind your opponent, and you have successfully gone from one of those humbling moments of slipping up to one of the prideful moments of setting yourself up to win.
Just by hitting this roll, your defense turns into offense. A great philosophy to have as a wrestler is “I shoot, I score. He shoots, I score,” and that is exactly what is achieved by the tight waist roll. There are many other ways that you can score by simply defending against your opponent, and Next Level Defensive Fundamentals is packed full of these helpful tricks. Check it out!